―Margaret Atwood‘s Divided Self‖ explores four novels by celebrated Canadian author, Margaret Atwood: Lady Oracle, Surfacing, Alias Grace, and The Robber Bride. Although others have discussed the reoccurring themes of disunity and duality in Atwood‘s work, these explorations have not addressed some of her newest novels and have taken a very limited approach to reading and understanding Atwood‘s theme of the divided self. This study opens up a literary ―conversation‖ about Atwood‘s theme of the divided self by examining the protagonists of these select novels by using different branches of theory and thought to fully explore this issue. To conquer their double or multiple identities Atwood‘s protagonists in these novels must take two actions: 1) Accept their double/multiple identities as a part of themselves and 2) transcend this position and the resulting ―hauntings‖ by their mothers (or their decision to choose a replacement female ―mother‖ figure) by becoming mothers themselves. The introduction chapter ―The Author as ‗Slippery Double‘‖ explores Atwood‘s position as a ―slippery (divided) subject‖ between her writing/social and interior selves. Chapter one, ―Canadian Women: Nature, Place, and the Divided Other in Atwood‘s Works‖ explores the role of nature, place, and femininity in Atwood‘s divided protagonists. Chapter two, ―The Uncanny Double: Haunting Entities and the Divided Self in Atwood‘s Fiction‖ contains the main argument and explores the role of the uncanny in Atwood‘s works. Although I explore these four novels most thoroughly explored, this theme runs throughout Atwood‘s entire body of work. Although I mostly use close readings of the primary texts, I also ground my argument in the work of theorists in several fields of thought including Sigmund Freud, Louis Althusser, George H. Mead, and Jacques Lacan.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Bodily Harm, and Alias Grace, Atwood demonstrates that the connection between language, translation, and the female body is evident in the ways in which language is used to control the female body. Atwood posits that language systems assume the female body is fixed; however, language is inherently unstable. Consequently, if the female body is inscribed by language, the female body is not fixed just as a text is not fixed. Atwood writes the female body as a translation of masculinist text in order to resist the tradition of constructing the female body reductively through masculinist language. Through the attempts of her female characters to represent themselves (rather than being represented) in her work, Atwood illustrates that ?authentic? linguistic representation of the female body is impossible because language is a patriarchal construction which defines limitations on female voice and articulates the female body in masculinist terms.

Uppsatsen jämför berättarteknikerna i romanen Alias Grace respektive dess adaptation, teveserien Alias Grace i en adaptationsanalys. Undersökningens fokus har lagts på en av de manliga huvudkaraktärerna, Simon Jordan. Analysen har jämfört hur denna karaktär har, genom de olika berättarteknikerna, konstruerats och vilka konsekvenser skillnaderna i konstruktionen får för berättelsen. Uppsatsen kommer fram till att en av de stora skillnaderna är att Jordans perspektiv i romanen är konstruerat genom en intern fokalisation. Denna fokalisation har inte översats i serien. Istället hålls många aspekter av Jordans personlighet dolda för publiken. Detta resulterar i att seriens Jordan skildras som en relativt platt karaktär i jämförelse med sin litterära motsvarighet. Uppsatsen diskuterar även det sexuella övergreppet i seriens sista avsnitt som begås av Jordan. Eftersom att övergreppet saknas i romanen debatteras dess roll som konsumtionsvåld och chockfaktor.

This study examines the use of the fairy tale intertext in contemporary Canadian womens fiction. In using specific fairy tale plots, themes, motifs, and/or characters within their works of fiction, women writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries purposefully express their goal for the revival and continuity of the female narrative voice and sense of agency. To explore the fairy tale-fiction relationship, Margaret Atwoods Alias Grace and Anne Hberts Kamouraska are approached from what fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes has constructed as the theory of contamination of the fairy tale genre. The fairy tale genres integration into contemporary fiction represents an important development where fairy tale narratives are critically reread so as to bring out deeper meanings for the contemporary audience. / Comparative Literature

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O presente trabalho teve como objetivo discutir questões sobre memória e intertextualidade, a partir dos diferentes textos constituintes da obra Vulgo Grace da autora canadense Margaret Atwood. A autora recupera a trajetória verídica de Grace Marks, uma criada condenada à prisão perpétua por ser cúmplice no assassinato do patrão e da governanta da casa em que trabalhava. Grace apresenta sinais de amnésia sobre os fatos ocorridos nos assassinatos e, nessa situação, um comitê que acredita na sua inocência convida o jovem médico americano Simon Jordan para descobrir a verdadeira causa dessa aparente amnésia. Dentro desse contexto, foi observada a presença significativa da memória e da intertextualidade como itens essenciais na obra. O método utilizado na análise foi o enfoque de três partes: a narração em primeira pessoa de Grace, a narração em terceira pessoa sobre Simon e os paratextos. A análise se deu por meio do cotejo entre os diferentes tipos de texto, tendo como base os conceitos de intertextualidade de Júlia Kristeva e Tiphaine Samoyault e memória de Márcio Seligmann-Silva, Michael Pollak e Alba Olmi Outros conceitos como o significado dos sonhos de Sigmund Freud e a metaficção historiográfica de Linda Hutcheon também se fazem presentes na análise. Esse estudo comparativo resultou na descoberta de diferentes relações entre os textos sendo que conceitos além das questões de memória e intertextualidade foram descobertos. A memória te grande significado na construção das relações humanas e na relação do ser com o passado. O presente trabalho mostra-se relevante em relação aos estudos de memória pelo fato de discutir e apresentar outros meios e outras ligações entre os intertextos como também se insere nos estudos da autora Margaret Atwood no Brasil. / The present thesis intended to discuss some issues related to memory and intertextuality, taking as a starting point the different texts from Alias Grace (Vulgo Grace), written by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The book retrieves the true story of Grace Marks, a maid sentenced to life imprisonment for being an accomplice to the murder of her employer and the housekeeper in the house where she used to work. Grace presented symptoms of amnesia, forgetting the facts that occurred in the murders. In that situation, a small committee who believe in Grace’s innocence hires the young American doctor Simon Jordan to discover the true reason for this apparent amnesia. In this context, a significant presence of memory and intertextuality as essential items of story could be observed. The method applied here was the focus on three parts: the first-person narration by Grace, the thirdperson narration about Simon and the paratexts. The analysis was made through the comparison between the different types of texts, based on intertextuality concepts stated by Júlia Kristeva and Tiphaine Samoyault and memory concepts presented by Márcio Seligmann-Silva, Michael Pollak, and Alba Olmi. Other concepts, such as the meanings of dreams, developed by Sigmund Freud, and the historiographic metafiction, elaborated by Linda Hutcheon, are also included in this analysis.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo discutir questões sobre memória e intertextualidade, a partir dos diferentes textos constituintes da obra Vulgo Grace da autora canadense Margaret Atwood. A autora recupera a trajetória verídica de Grace Marks, uma criada condenada à prisão perpétua por ser cúmplice no assassinato do patrão e da governanta da casa em que trabalhava. Grace apresenta sinais de amnésia sobre os fatos ocorridos nos assassinatos e, nessa situação, um comitê que acredita na sua inocência convida o jovem médico americano Simon Jordan para descobrir a verdadeira causa dessa aparente amnésia. Dentro desse contexto, foi observada a presença significativa da memória e da intertextualidade como itens essenciais na obra. O método utilizado na análise foi o enfoque de três partes: a narração em primeira pessoa de Grace, a narração em terceira pessoa sobre Simon e os paratextos. A análise se deu por meio do cotejo entre os diferentes tipos de texto, tendo como base os conceitos de intertextualidade de Júlia Kristeva e Tiphaine Samoyault e memória de Márcio Seligmann-Silva, Michael Pollak e Alba Olmi Outros conceitos como o significado dos sonhos de Sigmund Freud e a metaficção historiográfica de Linda Hutcheon também se fazem presentes na análise. Esse estudo comparativo resultou na descoberta de diferentes relações entre os textos sendo que conceitos além das questões de memória e intertextualidade foram descobertos. A memória te grande significado na construção das relações humanas e na relação do ser com o passado. O presente trabalho mostra-se relevante em relação aos estudos de memória pelo fato de discutir e apresentar outros meios e outras ligações entre os intertextos como também se insere nos estudos da autora Margaret Atwood no Brasil. / The present thesis intended to discuss some issues related to memory and intertextuality, taking as a starting point the different texts from Alias Grace (Vulgo Grace), written by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The book retrieves the true story of Grace Marks, a maid sentenced to life imprisonment for being an accomplice to the murder of her employer and the housekeeper in the house where she used to work. Grace presented symptoms of amnesia, forgetting the facts that occurred in the murders. In that situation, a small committee who believe in Grace’s innocence hires the young American doctor Simon Jordan to discover the true reason for this apparent amnesia. In this context, a significant presence of memory and intertextuality as essential items of story could be observed. The method applied here was the focus on three parts: the first-person narration by Grace, the thirdperson narration about Simon and the paratexts. The analysis was made through the comparison between the different types of texts, based on intertextuality concepts stated by Júlia Kristeva and Tiphaine Samoyault and memory concepts presented by Márcio Seligmann-Silva, Michael Pollak, and Alba Olmi. Other concepts, such as the meanings of dreams, developed by Sigmund Freud, and the historiographic metafiction, elaborated by Linda Hutcheon, are also included in this analysis.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo discutir questões sobre memória e intertextualidade, a partir dos diferentes textos constituintes da obra Vulgo Grace da autora canadense Margaret Atwood. A autora recupera a trajetória verídica de Grace Marks, uma criada condenada à prisão perpétua por ser cúmplice no assassinato do patrão e da governanta da casa em que trabalhava. Grace apresenta sinais de amnésia sobre os fatos ocorridos nos assassinatos e, nessa situação, um comitê que acredita na sua inocência convida o jovem médico americano Simon Jordan para descobrir a verdadeira causa dessa aparente amnésia. Dentro desse contexto, foi observada a presença significativa da memória e da intertextualidade como itens essenciais na obra. O método utilizado na análise foi o enfoque de três partes: a narração em primeira pessoa de Grace, a narração em terceira pessoa sobre Simon e os paratextos. A análise se deu por meio do cotejo entre os diferentes tipos de texto, tendo como base os conceitos de intertextualidade de Júlia Kristeva e Tiphaine Samoyault e memória de Márcio Seligmann-Silva, Michael Pollak e Alba Olmi Outros conceitos como o significado dos sonhos de Sigmund Freud e a metaficção historiográfica de Linda Hutcheon também se fazem presentes na análise. Esse estudo comparativo resultou na descoberta de diferentes relações entre os textos sendo que conceitos além das questões de memória e intertextualidade foram descobertos. A memória te grande significado na construção das relações humanas e na relação do ser com o passado. O presente trabalho mostra-se relevante em relação aos estudos de memória pelo fato de discutir e apresentar outros meios e outras ligações entre os intertextos como também se insere nos estudos da autora Margaret Atwood no Brasil. / The present thesis intended to discuss some issues related to memory and intertextuality, taking as a starting point the different texts from Alias Grace (Vulgo Grace), written by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The book retrieves the true story of Grace Marks, a maid sentenced to life imprisonment for being an accomplice to the murder of her employer and the housekeeper in the house where she used to work. Grace presented symptoms of amnesia, forgetting the facts that occurred in the murders. In that situation, a small committee who believe in Grace’s innocence hires the young American doctor Simon Jordan to discover the true reason for this apparent amnesia. In this context, a significant presence of memory and intertextuality as essential items of story could be observed. The method applied here was the focus on three parts: the first-person narration by Grace, the thirdperson narration about Simon and the paratexts. The analysis was made through the comparison between the different types of texts, based on intertextuality concepts stated by Júlia Kristeva and Tiphaine Samoyault and memory concepts presented by Márcio Seligmann-Silva, Michael Pollak, and Alba Olmi. Other concepts, such as the meanings of dreams, developed by Sigmund Freud, and the historiographic metafiction, elaborated by Linda Hutcheon, are also included in this analysis.

The central tenet of the study is that language and madness are bound together, language both including madness and perpetuating the exclusion of madness as 'other'. The first chapter considers the representation of madness in Atwood's novels The Edible Woman, Surfacing and Alias Grace from the perspective ofFoucauldian and Kristevan theories oflanguage and madness. Alias Grace becomes the focus in the second chapter. Here the syntax of madness is traced during Grace's stay in the mental asylum. Language, madness and sexuality are revealed as a palimpsest written on Grace's body. The final chapter looks at Grace's incarceration in the penitentiary and her dealings with the psychologist Dr. Simon Jordan where Grace's narrative tightly threads language and madness together. Underlying each chapter is a concern with how language and madness are in permanent interaction and opposition writing themselves onto society and onto Grace. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

This study examines Canadian works of fiction that contain historical trial narratives and that enact an adversarial trial of their own for an implied reader who acts as 'appellate judge.'' Included are four Canadian novels published after 1970 that fictionalize the circumstances leading to notorious criminal trials: Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace (1996), Lynn Crosbie's Paul's Case: The Kingston Letters (1997), and Rudy Wiebe's The Temptations of Big Bear (1973) and The Scorched-Wood People (1977). They represent commentaries on the justice or injustice done to convicted murderer Grace Marks (whose trial took place in 1843), to rebel Cree chief Big Bear and Metis leader Louis Riel (1885), and to serial rapists and killers Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo (1993, 1995). / Each work reproduces excerpts from the original trial yet also represents a response to the historical trial's unfolding. This adversarial response takes the form of a trial-like narrative (or counternarrative) that engages with the original trial. Consequently each of these works is what I call a 'trial novel' that raises fundamental questions about justice and citizenship. / Chapter One analyzes Atwood's Alias Grace and lays bare the fictional constructs included in a trial narrative. Chapter Two looks at Crosbie's Paul's Case and pits the judicial system's claim to sober neutrality against a more populist version of justice based on affect and revenge. Finally, Chapter Three, which is devoted to Wiebe's novels, studies the conflict of normative universes implicit in trials for treason and posits that rebel nomoi are as coherent as the dominant ones that quash them. / Three communities are implicit in these novels and enter into a debate with one another: at the core of each work is a historical community of persons (the accused, attorneys, the judge, jurors, and members of the Canadian public) mobilized around an actual crime. This original community and its judgment provide the inspiration for the fictional community of the novel, which grapples with its own version of the crime and trial. Finally, an imaginative community of readers deliberates upon the questions raised both by the original trial and by the 'trial novel'.